Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1982 (week 4)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we bring 1981 to a close with the comics hitting the newsstand on December 24, 1981.

Action Comics #529: Wolfman and Swan start this issue with a new problem, I think to misdirect from the inevitable conclusion. Superman can seem to see all the disasters that seem to be occurring over the Earth. The now-friendly Brainiac shows up and reveals that the disasters and Superman's inability to perceive them are all thanks to his Doomsday machine from last issue. He fixes Superman's senses, but the two of them don't know any way to stop the device other than restoring Brainiac's memories and evil personality. Brainiac suggests this would be a fate worse than death. You would think this would be the point where Brainiac reconsiders and heroically sacrifices himself to save the universe, but no. This is the point where Superman performs brain surgery without Brainiac's consent in the name of the greater good. That done, they head off to defeat the Planet-Eater.

In the Aquaman backup, he's still on the planet Vortuma helping the hexapodal aquatic sapients against the Land-Masters--who are revealed to merely be the same sort of beings in environmental suits allowing them to go on land.

All-Star Squadron #6: It's now December 22, 1941, and the JSA has disbanded with most of its members enlisting in anonymity. The All-Star Squadron, however, remains to protect the homefront. There's a lot of business to develop the characters and their relationships more, but in the background there's the machinations of Baron Blitzkrieg who has a plot to replace Churchill with an exploding robot. Luckily, Plastic Man is there to save the day.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #1: This new series by Thomas and Shaw/Andru replaces Adventure Comics. Superman tries to prevent a beam from Pluto from hitting the Earth, somehow sending Supes to an alternate earth and splitting the meteor he was using as a shield into 6 pieces. This is an anthropomorphic animal Earth, and the meteorite winds up imbuing the inhabitants that come in contact with it with super-powers. The first becomes Captain Carrot and tries to help Superman track the other pieces until the Man of Steel is caught in a space barrier. Captain Carrot proceeds go it alone, recruiting other super-powered animals that will form the Zoo Crew! The new team rescues Superman and stops the Plutonian menace.

Detective Comics #512: Batman escapes Dr. Death's deathtrap, then takes Robin to the hospital. A whole lot more people have been exposed to the toxin now and Death is holding Gotham for ransom. Batman tracks Death to his hideout and forces him to reveal the antidote lest he die as well. Meanwhile, Vicki Vale has figured out Bruce Wayne is Batman and seems to have uncovered that Robin's mysterious new girlfriend is a vampire, though Vale doesn't realize it yet.

New Adventures of Superboy #27: A husband and wife team of Kryptonian criminals arrive on Earth and claim to be Superboy's biological parents who left him on the El family doorstep. We'll have to wait until next issue to find out what sort of scam they are running, but I'm not convinced. In the second part of the Rozakis/Delbo backup, Superboy solves the mystery of a seemingly forgotten exploit of his younger self. He discovers he self-hypnotized himself to forget the events after his mother chastised him for using his powers to get an unfair advantage on the report he was writing for school on the space launch.

Unexpected #220: The opener here is sort a riff on the EC Comics yarn "All Through the House" except the escaped criminal dressed as Santa is caught, the wife isn't murdering her husband, and the real Santa is perhaps the one that phoned in the tip leading to madman's capture. The next story by Drake and Vicatan has an unscrupulous owner of the Stanhope Nuclear plant get his comeuppance when his daughter elopes with the radioactive guy protests the shabby treatment he got by the company outside Stanhope's mansion.

Kelley and Magalpo have some would-be drug smugglers becoming sacrifices for a serpent person cult in Central America. Finally, Cohn and Cullins present the story of a troll that runs afoul of a wizard and gets transported to a different world. Luckily, he's able to find a new home under the Brooklyn bridge. 

Unknown Soldier #261: Can Bob Haney go too far? I think he can! Exhibit A: this story. The Unknown Soldier has to infiltrate a castle in occupied France where his sweetheart, the Chinese pirate Jade, is being held prisoner. Their escape and defeat of the Nazis includes the Soldier's most outlandish disguise yet: the Beast, as in La Belle et la Bête.

The other two stories are one of those "tragedy of brothers on opposite sides" Civil War pieces by Haney and Estrada, and the Enemy Ace backup by Kanigher and Severin. Von Hammer duels his doppelganger but chooses not to send the plane down in flames. Still, the guy dies. I wonder how von Hammer doesn't get court martialed for shooting at his fellow Germans? 

World's Finest Comics #277: Burkett and Heck open this one with Batman and Superman dealing with a madman trying to start a plague by releasing a bunch of stray animals as carriers of the virus. Barr and von Eeden have Ollie released from jail after Morgan Thorpe is killed by one of Green Arrow's arrows. Now, Queen's got to investigate and clear his alter ego's name. The story ends with a fairly literal cliffhanger as the Emerald Archer is pushed on a rooftop. Kupperberg and Spiegle confronting her evil doppleganger in the dark dimension and freeing Jeff Sloane. 

Hawkman receives an urgent message from Hyanthis ruler of Thanagar asking for his help and saying the world is in ruins. Katar doesn't have any way to get home since Shayera took the rocket, so he heads to the JLA satellite to get help. Bridwell and Newton end the issue with a charming Captain Marvel Jr. tale of a professor who perfects a seed from which a giant tree grows that he plans to climb to reach the Moon. Marvel has to deal with the all the consequences.